Airbnb Admits It Farmed Craigslist, Blames Outside Salespeople

After Airbnb was
accused of "farming" Craigslist, or using automated spam
accounts to harvest email addresses and get listers to post their
ads on Craigslist, Airbnb has admitted to the practice but blames
rogue outside salespeople.

Airbnb says it contracted out to salespeople to sell listings
person-to-person but these people instead farmed
Craigslist.

Our instinctive response is: "Please."

Plenty of people did not-so-savory things to get their startup
off the ground. The Craigslist thing is unethical and against
Craigslist's rules but not, as far as anyone can tell, illegal.
It's sad and bad and not to be encouraged. But it also doesn't
take away from the huge amount of work and talent that goes into
turning a small-scale success into a huge company,
which Airbnb is doing.